Stratasys Lands $7.8M Defense Contract for F3300 and F900 Quality Systems

Stratasys Wins $7.8M DoW Contract for In-Situ Quality Monitoring

Stratasys has been awarded a $7.8 million contract from the 2026 America Makes and Department of War Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization Challenge. The funding will support development of on-site quality assurance capabilities for the company's F3300 and F900 FDM production 3D printers over the next two years.

The central problem the project targets is the inspection bottleneck that slows additive manufacturing adoption in production environments. Right now, manufacturers must remove parts from the build chamber and send them through costly post-build inspection and qualification before they can trust a production run. Stratasys wants to move that quality check inside the build itself.

"The next phase of additive manufacturing adoption within the defence industrial base is about moving from isolated applications to qualified, scalable production," said John Wilczynski, Executive Director of America Makes. "Stratasys' work to advance in-situ monitoring on established polymer production platforms addresses a critical part of that challenge."

The F3300 is Stratasys's newest FDM production system. It offers a 60 by 60 by 80 cm build volume, four material spool bays feeding four extruders, and independent onboard material dryers. The F900 is the company's long-running large-format workhorse. Both machines are already in use across defense and aerospace supply chains, which makes them natural testbeds for in-process monitoring.

"This initiative is about helping manufacturers scale additive production with confidence," said Rich Garrity, Chief Business Unit Officer at Stratasys. "When production teams have access to quality data during the build process, they can qualify applications with less friction and expand production capacity more efficiently."

The OIB Modernization Challenge this year backed several projects aimed at strengthening domestic manufacturing resilience. Stratasys's award specifically targets polymer FDM systems, the workhorses of tooling, fixtures, and end-use parts in defense logistics. If in-situ monitoring can be proven on the F3300 and F900, the methodology could cascade across the Stratasys installed base.

Two years of development lie ahead. The deliverables include real-time anomaly detection during builds, documentation workflows that satisfy quality audits, and a pathway to reduce or replace post-build inspection for qualified applications. For defense contractors waiting for AM to move from prototype to production, this is the kind of practical research that clears the final qualification hurdle.